Reactions on Friday morning at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Baton Rouge — disappointment and excitement — proved similar to those a year earlier, albeit seemingly a bit more subdued.

The select/nonselect separation of the football postseason adopted at last year's annual LHSAA convention, which ended with palpable tension and emotion, remained intact this week as the 2014 convention closed, once again leaving coaches, athletic directors and principals against the split feeling disappointed.

One agenda item, No. 29, had been authored in an attempt to end the format after one year, but fell, 208-93 — a wider margin than the 206-119 vote last January to begin the system.

But a series of related proposals, including the ability for schools to play up in any classification higher than their enrollment-determined level, did pass, which helped improve the feelings of the school officials concerned with the LHSAA's direction during the past year.

"I was surprised that some of the things the School Relations Committee put up passed," said LHSAA President Todd Guice, principal at Ouachita. "I was excited about that. Although we didn't come back together like a lot of people want us to, I think we made some progress today. We started considering some things and passing somethings that had been a point of contention. We didn't come back together, but I do think the conversation has started, and we've made some progress."

The School Relations Committee, chaired by Teurlings Catholic Principal Mike Boyer, worked throughout the year to propose potential rules changes members hoped would help ease tension between issue's two sides.

Several of those proposals, including the ability to "play up" in any classification and several changes to eligibility and transfer rules, passed, in many cases by wide margins.

Boyer jokingly offered an open invitation to join him at the casino later in the day, saying, "I've been a part of more yeses today than I ever have."

"It was exciting to put forth the time and effort with what started off as a small group but (became) a large group of School Relations Committee members, and to go through the disappointment of yesterday that none of the classes got back together to the what I feel like is overwhelming passage of the big-ticket items, the big-picture items that affect the LHSAA," Boyer said. "I think when you got down real specific would've been the school success factor, and that dealt with each school individually, and that didn't pass. So I think they've got it. I think they're looking at the big picture."

Coaches, athletic directors and principals in favor of the select/nonselect split headed home Friday happy for obviously different reasons.

"There was a 6 percent increase in the vote this time on the split," Franklin Parish Coach Barry Sebren said. "Last year, there was 63 percent for it, and that increased to 69 percent this year, so I think people saw that it wasn't the end of the world that we did it. It's not hurting anybody.

"The difference is that the private schools in some instances voted for it this time, so I think we kind of dispelled some of the gloom and doom by trying it out. I think if you pass something, you should at least give it two years to critique it before you try and get rid of it."

E.D. White Principal Michelle Chiasson, authored the proposal to end the select/nonselect separation, expressed concern the division "could ultimately lead to split associations" and charged the membership to "work to fix the real problems," which she felt the year-old playoff format did not effectively address.

"Since last year, as I said immediately, we received such bad press as a principals' association, especially with the cheering and hooting and hollering — I think one person went back to that today," Chiasson said. "This is not about us and animosity we have amongst each other. It's about kids and keeping kids in sports. The conversations that ensued after last year's vote were around specific topics, and as I said, I think the School Relations Committee did a great job addressing those specific concerns.

"By splitting the schools, that did nothing to address recruiting, eligibility violations. Some of the nonselect schools have those same issues with parish lines and living in homes where they're not really supposed to be. Those issues will always be there, unless we have specific plans and implementations in place to stop that."

The vote to change schools' athletic attendance zones to match parish boundary lines passed, 184-125, with a subsequent set of new rules on eligibility after an athlete transfers also passing, 195-114. A motion to not allow any students below the seventh grade to practice or play for a school team passed, 232-79.

The ability for schools to play up in classification passed, 215-91. Schools providing financial aid must also now use an LHSAA-recognized agency, approved by the Executive Committee, when doing so, according to a 231-78 vote.

The Executive Director also now has the authority to conduct random investigations of school athletic records, according to a 269-39 vote, and can employ a professional investigator to conduct certain investigations when deemed necessary and given the consent of the Executive Committee's president, a change that passed by a 273-38 margin.

"I feel a lot better," Zachary Principal Wes Watts said. "I was actually surprised in a different way. Yesterday I was surprised that we were not able to come back together in (Class) 5A in football. Today I was really surprised at some of the things that did pass, which is good, though. I really feel like the work that we put in in the School Relations Committee was worth it."

Several select school coaches and principals talked before Friday morning's voting about the potential of splitting into a separate organization. Some of those individuals referenced that discussion as being anything but novel, but admitted the idea might be more plausible now than ever before.

"Last year there was a lot of talk about splitting the association and select schools starting their own association, but also inviting nonselect schools, because there were some nonselect schools who were very dissatisfied with the way things were being run and said, 'We would like to join your association,'" Chiasson said. "For the Catholic schools and religious-based schools, we would love to have an association where we can bring in faith, so there are a lot of pluses to that, but we still want to work with everyone in the LHSAA organization to keep it together.

"But there is a lot of talk, and depending on how today's vote went, really a lot of momentum swinging toward being able toward being able to make our own decisions and being able to do what's best for our students as well."

Some coaches and principals felt the victory of proposals pushed forth by the School Relations Committee helped bring the two sides closer together or at least stop the feeling evident Thursday the sides were heading farther apart.

But discussion by Many Principal Norman Booker about his intentions to have added an amendment to split all sports' postseasons into select and nonselect groups to a proposal before that particular proposal was withdrawn from the agenda clearly caught the attention of some coaches and principals opposed to such a move.

"I think it definitely pushed it in that direction," John Curtis Coach J.T. Curtis said. "And I think that the sentiment was obvious today when they took that all-sport amendment off of the calendar for us to vote on today, it was saying, 'Look, that might be too much too soon,' but I think that's next. I think that's what's coming next, and I think it'll certainly be on the agenda for next year, and I think it will probably pass that we'll separate in all sports."

Some advocates of remaining split downplayed that discussion.

"What bothers me is all the talk of, 'We're going to look at other options,'" Sebren said. "That's just a lot of beating their chest and acting like they're going to do something, but really there's nothing they can do. I'm glad everything worked out the way it did. I'm excited."

But a move toward a split in all sports, which most coaches and principals forecast will at least be proposed for next year's agenda, could certainly increase support in that direction.

"There was some movement. There was politics today," Boyer said. "There was going to be some amendment items that would attempt to split all sports. That didn't happen — today — but that tells you that it's going to come up. Next year it's going to be on the agenda, rather than an amendment item, and I think if that ever passes, then there's a group of us that would have to sit back and take a look and see what's the best interest of our schools and of our student-athletes."